History of the Global Alliance and Treaty Organization
The Beginning When Cyber Nations was first unveiled, its third registered player, Depraved, founded an alliance named the Cross Atlantic Treaty Organization. CATO's name was to be short-lived; within a week it was renamed GATO, the Global Alliance and Treaty Organization. The first Assembly Chairman was Depraved who held the position twice in a row. The Minister of Defense was TJ Booth. Levh7 would hold the office of Minister of Foreign Affairs for an unprecedented 5 terms. The Minister of Defense was Jormungand. He, however, would not be elected to this position until after World War I. World War I It began with the formation of INC, the Imperial Nations Coalition. They grew quickly, and became a loose alliance of roughly 50 members. Headed by Ninja and Chris Miller, it was easily the largest alliance in the game. This came to be disadvantageous for GATO, as the two had come nearly to blows over a short time. GATO discussed declaring war on INC on its own forums, which eventually came to be known by Ninja. Infuriated, Ninja declared war on GATO, terming it World War I. It has come to be called the GATO-INC War. Neither of the two alliances won the war, as Chris Miller asked for a ceasefire. The next day Jormungand, then a member of INC, left for GATO along with a number of other members. INC fell by the wayside a short time later, and crumbled as members left to join GATO. For a short time, GATO prospered, left as the sole hyperpower of the game. This would end up a short-lived supremacy, however. The End of the Beginning Around the end of the GATO-INC War, Cyber Nations was discovered by a massive nation simulator game called NationStates. People flocked over in droves. Karpathos founded the New Pacific Order on the Red Team, headed by the controversial Ivan Moldavi. The NPO became close friends with GATO, signing the very first Non Aggression Pact and Mutual Defense Pact, called the Dove Doctrine and the Unity Covenant, respectively. It was in this time that GATO saw itself eclipsed, its earlier monopoly on members disappear. In order to combat the rising power of the New Pacific Order, the LUEnited Nations, the Orange Defense Network, the Grand Global Alliance, and the United Civilized States formed the Independence Council. It, however, began to fall apart when all alliances were invited to join it. However, before it crumbled completely, something called the Entente Cordiale was to be created by GATO, Legion, and the National Alliance of Arctic Countries. It was vetoed by the then Assembly Chairman Jormungand due to the wording; if any EC member went to war, all signatories were obligated to join it. Legion, similarly, voted it down, leaving the Cordiale to wither away soon after. However, it was the first sign of major opposition to the NPO. GATO fought a number of smaller wars following the GATO-INC War, including the Chessania Campaign, the FrUCK War, and the UN War. However, a much larger conflict would soon erupt upon the blue sphere. It was revealed by two NAAC members that the alliance had dispatched a spy within the NPO's ranks. The situation soon escalated, leading to outright war. Along with the NPO was the Legion, as a result of the The Imperial Accords, a treaty between the two. It was soon discovered a spy was in GATO, leading GATO to join in the battle. The Second Polar War was on. After Emperor Ivan announced the creation of a New Polar Order, the new AC Vercingetorix gave a speech opening his term criticizing NPO formation of the Blue Alliance the New Polar Order. GATO-NPO relations began to erode. The pinnacle was reached in June with the GARO incident. Grenval, always a bit of a prankster himself, made a post announcing the Global Alliance Red Organization. The NPO was insanely outraged and suspended the unity covenant. Also, Grenval was forced to resign as MoDA. Grenval was soon back writing Cox News Articles, known for the hilarity and parody of the NPO. After the brief foot note of the WSA War, which had the largest use of nukes ever, one poke set the whole house of cards tumbling. Yaridovich, ex-LUE co leader, posted a LUEicide. NpO Emperor Tygaland was livid and nuked LUE member duffman04. NPO declared war to back up the NpO. IGC followed. GATO intended to repeal the MDP with LUE but the pre-emptive nuking hadn't given them time. GATO declared war on NPO followed by a flurry of other alliances. The war was furious. Dasgirl shot off 5 nukes, hitting Vladimir the first day at 11:59:50, literally seconds before update. Yuuzhan Tar took 5 nukes for GATO and plummeted in strength horribly. The lower GATO echelons crushed the NPO forces, yet their highest ranked nations suffered extreme losses. More alliances joined, making an NPO defeat seem inevitable. But then, there was the coven scandal. Nosdondekistan, EvilCartyen, and Yoda turned out to be spies for an information gathering group called Coven of the Lost. Nosey was a NPO Alliance Councilman. EC was Legion Director of Intelligence. And Yoda, was the Assembly Chairman of GATO. A 24 ceasefire was called immediately to allow team to regroup from the shock. Just afterward, EC gave the Legion logs proving the NPO intend to knock off Legion for not coming to their rescue. Legion joined the war and bashed NPO down hard. Legion was now #1. Minister of Defense Chris_Kaos took up the AC job in full vigor and returned to the war effort. Chris was the CoaLUEtion's official negotiator and was primarily the man who set down peace terms. As the war wore on, will to fight was sapped in both sides. Ivan Moldavi admitted the Orders had acted rashly and had been defeated for it. The war was over. During and after the war, GATO established MDP's with its CoaLUEtion partners, NAAC, CDS, and Legion. August was a month of intense rebuilding under Chairman Chris_Kaos, with vigorous diplomatic moves being made by him and Minister of Foreign Affairs Jacksonians (the pirate c'ptain. ARRR!). During this same time however, some of the internal conflicts of the alliance begun surfacing. Fueled by a lack of organization during the war and the rogue conflicts that followed, the military grew to a state of unrest. At the same time, Chairman Chris_Kaos and former Minister of Domestic Affairs Letum begun being at loggerheads . As tensions grew and elections neared, Chairman Chris_Kaos brought Letum to court on charges of treason and attempting to overthrow the Global Alliance government via an alleged plot involving the mass use of nuclear weaponry. However, it was soon apparent that the evidence presented was highly circumstancial and Chairman Chris_Kaos dropped the charges, apologizing for the accusations. Whilst the Court Case was ongoing, Letum was elected as Assembly Chairman by the General Assembly. The next two months saw Letum being re-elected to the position of Chairman, as well as significant improvements to the state of the Global Alliance's Military Forces, making it one of the most, if not the most, powerful armies in the world. At the same time the Immigration and Financial systems underwent rehauls that greatly benefited the alliance. At the same time however, conflicts within the Leadership of the Alliance begun to rise, and relations with the NPO, NpO and GOONS begun to deteriorate. The conflict begun when GATO's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Grenval, made a statement in the GATO's embassy with the NPO concerning espionage conducted against the Order by a third party. However, his reception was anything but polite, and after being repeatedly insulted by NPO members and the emperor of the NpO, Grenval made a statement that GATO maintained a secret policy of not recognizing the NpO. In the ensuing firestorm, the already developing conflicts between factions in GATO exploded, resulting in the resignations of Minister of Foreign Affairs Grenval for his comments against NpO, and of Chairman Letum for his recognition of NpO without prior agreement by the General Assembly. Following Letum's resignation, Minister of Defence Beryl succeeded as Chairman. During his short tenure as Chairman, he attempted to calm down tensions, and oversaw the debates as well as the vote regarding recognition of the NpO. However, Beryl unexpectedly resigned from his position and from the alliance, and Letum, who had been appointed as Minister of Defence succeeded him and regained the position of Chairman. With some moves to calm internal conflict being made, the Global Alliance government begun to reach an tentative agreement to recognize the Polar Order. At this time, an Ultimatum by the New Polar Order was made, demanding GATO answer within 24 hours "or else." GATO's government as a whole decided to ignore this ultimatum, and talks of severing all diplomatic ties with the Polar Order begun to surface. When the Ultimatum Deadline passed, the NpO made a statement revoking recognition of GATO (instead claiming they are a colony of LUE) and cutting off diplomatic ties, followed by statements from the NPO and GOONS, also cutting off ties. During this chaos, Chairman Letum, and Deputy Chairman Chris_Kaos made an announcement in which GATO condemned the insulting behavior of the NpO's emperor and recognized the NpO as a sovereign political alliance, but not a military one. In other words, they would act independently of the NPO on political matters, but would tag along on military ones. The announcement also destroyed the embassies of the GOONS, NPO and NpO, relegating them to a status of "No Diplomatic Relations." It appeared that the situation had been resolved, when a new crisis rose: Depraved, founder of GATO, returned to the alliance and distraught with the government and the concentration of power, decided to launch a coup, using his powers as founder of the forums. However, GATO rose against this coup, and soon moved to new forums created by Letum. Whilst Depraved had support from the NPO, NpO and GOONS, he had little support from within GATO, and even less support from GATO's allies, which rushed to the side of the Letum administration. He soon admitted defeat, deleted the forums after finding out that Chris_Kaos had been working as a "double agent" for the Letum government, and fled to the GOONS. GATO launched into a furious process of rebuilding, managing to successfully hold elections with a record turnout within 24 hours of the Coup. The sunsequent month saw Octavian being elected to the position of Chairman, and efforts made from all sides to reduce the level of conflict within GATO, until it stopped being an issue. November saw a number of programs made to improve GATO, the most important of which was a series of large Aid Chains, which significantly boosted the average strength of the alliance. However, peace was not meant to be. After a small political issue where a Nordreich recruitment video on YouTube made frontline news in Norway, there was a massive influx of new players coming from the FARK forums, and they formed the FARKISTAN alliance. FARK had a longstanding rivalry with the members of the Something Awful forums, who make up the large body of GOONS. When Farkistan appeared in CN, GOONS immediately engaged in reasonable peace talks, asking for a general permanent Non-aggression Pact. These rather reasonable requests were, however, thrown back at GOONS, and Farkistan was made a protectorate of LUEnited Nations. GOONS, as well as its allies, declared war against Farkistan for being a future threat to The Initiative. In response to this, LUE issued a declaration of war on GOONS and her allies, and activated their multiple MADP's, bringing GATO into what became the Second Global War. However, GATO's involvement in this war was short-lived, lasting less than one week, and in that week they experienced massive casualties, while inflicting very little on their enemies. Indeed, it is from this event, among others occurring throughout GW2 that caused the Initiative to nickname GATO as being 'Worst Alliance Ever'. The actual date at which GATO resigned from the war is disputed, as there were several surrender statements that were alternately said to be either official or unofficial, the first one being stated by the then Minister of Foreign Affiars, BenPG. After several disputes over the legitimacy of these surrenders, it was finally determined that GATO had indeed surrendered, and the League, a super-alliance formed to combat the Initiative, soon crumbled after, and both LUE and Farkistan were left to fight the Initiative on their own. After the war, GATO underwent chaos, as practically every single elected government official was either in the process of resigning or in court for impeachment. Letum, the then chairman of the alliance, expressed a desire to resign 48 hours after the conclusion of GATO's involvement in the war, but eventually stuck through to the end of his term, supervising rebuilding operations, before leaving in February for the New Pacific Order. In the next election, Vincent Xander, who inherited the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs after the war, became the next Assembly Chairman. It was to be a new age for GATO, with new thoughts, revolutionary ideas, Vincent Xander was hailed as being 'the Greatest AC GATO has ever had'. One month after the Second Global War, private conversations were leaked between Vincent Xander and Sir Galahad, Foreign Minister of the Legion. These conversations featured Vincent Xander attempting to gain political solidarity on GATO's side of the MDP web. The Initiative seized the oppurtonity to declare war, claiming that Vincent Xander was attempting to gain a military coalition against the Initiative, and the rest of the MADP bloc followed, in what would become the Third Great War. After GATO's entry into the Third Great War, several alliances joined GATO in their fight, including the Legion, NAAC, the Sphere alliance block, and several smaller alliances. This loose coalition became known as "Aegis", and opposed the Initiative during the Third Great War. GATO fought largely against the combined forces of the GGA and the NPO, with NPO forces largely sitting out the war, and waiting in reserve. NPO forces moved in to reinforce GGA and other Initiative forces when fights turned against them, and provided aid to fund the war effort. Eventually, negotiations with New Pacific Order leadership led to the release of a reasonable set of peace terms, which were accepted by then-AC Kevlar. The Global Alliance and Treaty Organization surrendered to the Initiative on April 10, 2007, ending their involvement in the Third Great War. The terms included the payment of $350 million in reparations, the permanent removal of Chris_Kaos and Walford from political offices or administrative positions, and the recognition of the NPO as superior cowards, backstabbers and schemers. In addition, GATO was required to dismantle all military installations and equipment except for tanks and troops for the a two month period. In order to prevent oppurtounistic attacks, GATO was also put under direct NPO protection for the two-month period. A protection that did not exist, and for two long months GATO suffered from repeated raids and attacks. After the war, an exodus of members left GATO with only the most loyal followers remaining, a core of approximately 400 members. With this new membership came a spirit of solidarity in the alliance not seen since before the Second Great War. A new government was elected that represented the new face of GATO, with Your Daddy becoming the new Minister of Finance, jsims8 becoming the new Assembly Chairman, Raistlin becoming the new Minister of Domestic Affairs, BarburaM1 became the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gonzoczar became the new Minister of Defense, and the alliance's Congress featured several members new to GATO politics as well. With a new, determined membership and leadership, GATO has moved to reclaim its lost mask, and to regain its former standing as a great alliance in Cybernations. The recent The Unjust War has provided an opportunity for GATO. GATO was neutral in the beginning and many sanctioned alliances were expected to lose much National Strength during the conflict. GATO, had PIATs with -AiD- and NTO and declared war on FOK in assistance of the two alliances. GATO claimed it was a 'side war' and not part of the larger conflict. On September 15, after -AiD- surrendered to FOK!, GATO and FOK! negotiated a ceasefire, due to one of its reasons for joining were now out of it. GATO's hopes of once again being Sanctioned due to the NS loss of many alliance came true on the Third of October 7, when they, along with Sparta and CSN gained Sanctioned status, with the now defunct GOONS, GOLD and \m/ loosing theirs. As of April 24, 2008, all of GATO's members were ordered into DEFCON 1 following the leakage of information about something that broke the treaty pact of the GW3. Three days later the power bloc One Vision (referred to by many on the other side as "No Vision") declared war upon GATO, with following cassus belli. As far as this author is aware, the main reason that the war began on April 27 is that a certain member "Chris_Kaos" (who was not allowed to participate in government action because of GATO's terms of surrender after Great War 3) once again joined the GATO government under a fake name. Here is the story according to one GATOan: <"So around August of '07, Chris_Kaos created a new nation, under the alias 'Alexander_Gladius.' He joined GATO, using an anonymous proxy server in order to hide his true identity from the government. GATO was unaware of this, and during his near 4 and a half months in GATO, only made it into the Congress. He did nothing of interest nor anything of substance, and was able to disguise himself successfully from the eyes of the admins. He also disguised his posting style, giving GATO no reason to suspect him to be C_K. He eventually let his nation die and quit Cybernations in November of '07. Early in '08, he logged onto IRC and connected to the GATO public channel, #gato. He then queried a certain member, BarbulaM1, and told the story of how he re-created his nation under a new name and snuck into GATO. BarbulaM1 kept this very vital information to himself, which some have said ultimately led to the outbreak of this ridiculous war. This information was unfortunately leaked to NPO, who used as the cb for this war."> This war came to be known as the GATO-1V war. Currently, GATO is under a Viceroyship by the NPO, as stated in the terms of surrender. History of GATO moved from the Main Page Cyber Nations Formation and Pre-History Very shortly after Cyber Nations was founded, Depraved (the third registered CN player) founded the Cross-Atlantic Treaty Organization (CATO). Within a week, the alliance was renamed the Global Alliance and Treaty Organization (GATO), its present name. In the larger world, an alliance called Imperial Nations Coalition (INC), was the largest alliance in the world, rivaled only by GATO. After a breakdown in diplomatic negotiations, the two alliances went to war (World War I, WWI. Not to be confused with the Great Wars, to follow). The extremely underdeveloped war system prevented there from being a winner, and the war ended in a ceasefire. Soon afterwards, though, INC dissolved (largely into GATO), leaving GATO as the hegemon of Cybernations. Near the end of the GATO-INC War, a massive new influx of players from another online game (Nation States) changed the face of Cybernations. A new alliance, the New Pacific Order (NPO) from Nationstates grew exponentially, eventually overtaking GATO as the largest alliance in the game. However, the NPO and GATO were close; they signed a Non-Aggression Pact (the Dove Doctrine) and a Mutual Defense Pact (the Unity Covenant). After this time, GATO fought a number of smaller wars. The Chessania Campaign, FrUCK War, Warpstorm War, and the UN War were all fought during this time period, mostly against small and overmatched alliances. The Second Polar War (PWII) erupted when GATO, the NPO, and the Legion all declared war on the National Alliance of Arctic Countries (NAAC) after NAAC was found to have a spy in the NPO and GATO. The (First) Great War After the conclusion of the Second Polar War, the NPO announced that it would be establishing a new alliance, the New Polar Order (NpO), to bring stability to the Blue Sphere. GATO's Assembly Chairman gave a speech criticizing the move, and GATO-NPO relations immediately began to fray. As tensions rose, GATO's Minister of Domestic Affairs, Grenval, gave a speech mockingly announcing the creating of the Global Alliance and Red Organization (GARO) on the Red Sphere, the home of the NPO. The NPO, outraged, suspended the Unity Covenant. GATO had in the meantime signed several more treaties, including a critical Mutual Defense Pact (MDP) with LUEnited Nations. At the conclusion of the Warpstorm Alliance War, a soon-to-be infamous LUE member named Yaridovich committed a LUEicide. He was banned for posting obscene stories involving members of the NPO, which enraged the NPO. As the situation deteriorated, GATO entered the cancellation period of their MDP with LUE. However, before the treaty could be cancelled, NpO Emperor Tygaland nuked LUE member duffman04, starting what would become known as Great War I. NPO and the International Green Coalition (IGC) declared war on LUE to back up the NpO. GATO, forced to defend LUE by its still-active treaty, declared war on all attacking parties, and was followed by a flood of allies that became known as the CoaLUEtion. After a brutal opening fight, the eventual victors were unclear. However, hostilities soon paused, as it was revealed that high-ranking officials in all three major alliances (GATO, the NPO, and Legion), including GATO's Assembly Chairman Yoda, were members of a secret intelligence-gathering ring. After a 24-hour ceasefire, logs were revealed to the Legion government that the NPO was planning to attack them after the war. Legion declared war on NPO soon after, starting the Legion-NPO War, bringing the war towards its conclusion. Negotiations afterwards led to an apology by NPO Ivan Moldavi and an end to the war. The Inter-War Period and the Second Great War After the war, GATO began to solidify its relations with the alliances that fought with it during the war, signing MDPs with the NAAC, CDS, and Legion. At the same time, leadership in GATO began to seem less than stable, with a feud emerging between then-AC Chris Kaos and Minister of Defense Letum. Letum was elected AC soon thereafter. At the same time, relations with the NPO, NpO and the Goon Order of Neutral Shoving (GOONS) began to deteriorate severely. When Minister of Foreign Affairs Grenval was insulted in the GATO embassy at NPO, he announced that GATO had a "secret policy" of not recognizing the NpO. Relations between the four alliances shattered. The NPO revoked their recognition of GATO (calling them "a colony of LUE"), and GATO cut off diplomatic relations with the NPO. Soon afterwards, internal tensions reached a head, when founder Depraved returned to the alliance and became unhappy with what it had become. Depraved seized control with a small group of conspirators, using his powers as root admin of the forums to demask most of the government. However, the Letum government moved the alliance to a new set of forums quickly and without incident, and as the coup fell apart, Depraved deleted the old GATO forums, destroying massive amounts of GATO history in the process. He fled to GOONS soon after, as the GATO government re-organized on the new forums. As GATO rebuilt, the international scene heated up once again. A new alliance, Fark, was formed from a massive influx of players from the Fark forums. GOONS, whose off-site base were long-time rivals with Fark, soon declared war, and the Great War II began. LUE announced that Fark had been made a protectorate which had not been announced, declaring war on nations that had declared war on Fark. GATO, which now held a Mutual Aggression and Defense Pact (MADP) with LUE, was brought into the war, declaring war on The Initiative, the treaty bloc which included GOONS, NPO, and NpO. The war developed into a massive war between The League (GATO, LUE, and their allies) against The Initiative (GOONS, NPO, and their allies). The League fell apart militarily after a short time, and after a short fight (compared to the first Great War), the League surrendered with light peace terms. Several key GATO officials, including Minister of Foreign Affairs BenPG and Assembly Chairman Letum left for GOONS and the NPO respectively after the end of the war. The Third Great War and its Aftermath After GWII, Vincent Xander (VX) became the AC of GATO, heralding a new age in GATO-NPO relations. However, soon after GATO's rebuilding from the Second Great War concluded, logs were discovered documenting conversations between VX and Sir Galahad, Foreign Minister of the Legion. In the logs, VX attempted to bring the Legion (then neutral, and who had sat out GWII despite treaty obligations) and GATO closer together. The NPO, upon finding these logs, declared that GATO was trying to build a military coalition against them, and declared war, sparking Great War III. A large group of alliances joined GATO in defense against The Initiative, including the Legion and NAAC, forming the loose "Aegis" coalition. However, Aegis was unable to fight off the more powerful Initiative bloc, and GATO among others soon accepted surrender terms. The terms included massive payments and complete decommissioning of the GATO military for two months. In addition, a massive member exodus took place. GATO, which had well over 1,000 members before the war, held just over 400 afterwards. However, with just the most loyal members remaining, rebuilding went smoothly. A new government was elected, and GATO began to rebuild, moving to regain its lost sanction. The Unjust War (UJW), fought mainly between members of the dissolved Initiative, brought GATO into a small war to protect its PIAT (Protection, Intelligence, and Aid Treaty) partners in Alliance of International Defence (AiD) and Northern Treaty Organization (NTO) against FOK. However, after AiD surrendered, GATO and FOK! reached a ceasefire. The massive damage caused to most sanctioned alliances by the UJW allowed GATO to regain a sanction, along with Sparta and Commonwealth of Sovereign Nations. One Vision War and the Pacifican Viceroyship After the war, the surrender terms dictated that long-time members Chris Kaos and Walford could not hold positions within the GATO government. However, several months after the end of the UJW, evidence was leaked to the NPO that Chris Kaos had deleted his old profile, created a new one with a new IP address under the name Alexander Gladius, and held low-ranking positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Congress. With this casus belli, the NPO and their partners in One Vision (the Independent Republic of Orange Nations, the NpO, and the Grand Global Alliance) attacked GATO once again, starting the GATO-1V War, claiming that though the IC character had changed, the OOC distinction violated IC surrender terms. Though some allies fought with GATO, most notably United Sovereign Nations, Commonwealth of Sovereign Nations, and the Imperial Assault Alliance (IAA, later forced to disband), the just-rebuilt GATO and its small allies were no match for the massive strength aligned against them. The war lasted several months, as no surrender terms were offered despite a clear victor and crippling damage done to GATO. At the conclusion of the war, GATO signed surrender terms once again, including accepting a Viceroy, and giving full control of their forums to the NPO (now illegal by the Cyber Nations Terms of Service). NPO members Koona, Cortath, Sir Donald R. Deamon all held various positions under the NPO Viceroyship. From that point, GATO worked valiantly to rebuild, after another exodus of members left only the most-dedicated. The alliance rebuilt its basic structures and redesigned its forums, working with the Viceroy team, whose five-month minimum time commitment ended in mid-December 2008. At midnight on April 15, 2009, shortly before the NPO-OV War, GATO was officially released from Viceroyship. The Viceroy era would leave scars on NPO-GATO relations for years to come. Rebuilding and the TOP-C&G War After the Viceroyship, GATO gained members and score rapidly. After a solid term by veteran AC Kevlar, long-time Minister of Foreign Affairs Laserwolf took the helm of leadership and was elected AC. GATO's domestic growth boomed during Laserwolf's six-month term, and GATO moved to intermittently hold the 15th-strongest alliance spot. Internationally, GATO signed an MDP with its long-time friend in the IAA, and also signed MDPs with newer friends in Viridian Entente, Orange Defense Network, and New Sith Order. After Laserwolf left office due to term limit restrictions, Magicninja became the new AC, signing an MDP with Athens after the short-lived TPF War. When the NpO-\m/ War broke out, GATO declared war on Genesis to assist its partner, IAA. However, the war ended quickly, and GATO switched fronts to defend the ODN in the newer TOP-C&G War, declaring war against the Sweet Oblivion. On March 7, 2010, GATO regained its sanctioned, overtaking IRON. GATO later won the war against TSO, deciding to not ask the alliance for reparations. During its rebuilding phase, GATO was overtaken by a resurgent TOP, losing its sanction. However, it later closed the gap on United Purple Nations, moving to the 13th-placed alliance in the Cyberverse. Sanction was regained on 24 October 2010. Category:Global Alliance and Treaty Organization